The invention relates to a device for storing and readying of magnetic tape cassettes, which may be taken automatically and individually from said device and brought into a working position. Each cassette is arranged so that following the release of a lock, due to the inclined position of the supporting structural part, it moves into its working position or is conducted to addition means of transport, by gravity.
A device of this general type is known from DE-OS 25 51 884. In this patent each supporting part forming an inclined bearing surface for a cassette is equipped with a single mechanical locking device, in which a magnetic anchor maintains a pawl in the locking position and in which the magnetic anchor releases the pawl upon an electrical signal. Under the effect of the gravitational force of the cassette, the pawl is then moved into its nonlocking position and subsequently returned automatically into its locking position, following the sliding out of the cassette, where it is again locked into position by the magnetic anchor. In the case of the invention of the principal patent, the pawl is formed by means of the lug of a dual arm rocker lever engaging the upper end of the cassette. The free end of said rocker lever rests on the magnetic anchor in the locking position and is unlocked by the withdrawal of the anchor upon a signal of the control magnet, thus releasing the cassette.
Other locking devices for cassettes in cassette storage devices are known. These consist essentially of pairs of sliding bolts which can be moved from the path of the sliding cassettes, said sliding bolts being connected together in lines and columns so that the sliding bolts of every line and the sliding bolts of every column can be moved out of the sliding path of the cassettes in sets and independently of each other. The cassettes are supported on inclined bearing surfaces. In this case, depending on the form of the embodiment of the known locking device, at least one of the two mechanically movable sliding bolts serves simultaneously as a stop for the cassette upon the insertion of the latter into the cassette compartment, so that the sliding bolt directly absorbs the kinetic energy of the striking cassette. Accordingly, both the stops or sliding bolts and their bearings must be suitably dimensioned; however, due to the constantly repeated impact stressing of the bolts, it is not possible to thereby exclude wear phenomena which interfer with the operating safety of the entire storage device. The same is true for the locking device of the principal patent.